Something Back

JR sat upright. He found himself underneath a bridge, right between the bridge and the little incline a few metres from the road. He stood up and noticed that his arms had turned back to his normal tanned skin tone. It was extremely early, during peak hours, since the traffic seemed extremely congested from where he now sat. He ran his hand through his short black hair and felt that the gel had been rubbed out completely. He must have looked like a mess.

            A number of drivers stared at him in disbelief as he stood up and made his way down the road. He figured out that he had fallen asleep underneath the Snake Road onramp. He had no cellphone, and he knew that he had never left home with his car, so he had to make his way back on foot. Fortunately he felt a whole lot better than the day before. He had nothing on him, so he must have lost the firearm he had used somewhere between him firing at Ed, and his black out, though for all he knew he could have gone and robbed a bank while he was out. Not that his aim was any good, as proven yesterday when he missed Ed.

            "The fuck's wrong with me, man..." he mumbled as he walked by the Mona Lisa Centre. "First I lose my shit, then I pull a gun on Ed!"

            He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he made his way through to the other side of the Centre. He had no idea why he was expecting an answer to his question. As if he knew someone was always around. Then it occurred to him that he had in fact always been around people. He had always been dependent on others. Had always been a baby...

He had arrived back home, where someone's Porsche stood in the driveway. He climbed over the fence so he could get to the back, and entered the house through the sliding doors. He peered around the corner and tried his best not to make a sound, though half way up the stairs someone called him from behind.

            "You are one hell of a chore," the person said with an American accent. He was eating an apple and staring at JR with his ice cold, sky blue eyes. "Welcome home, I guess?"

            JR merely looked at the man, not knowing entirely what to say or how to react. He figured that Ed or Ian must have asked one of their friends to keep watch, but this man seemed strange in a way. Almost like they were back in the day when they first started on the whole Agency thing, according to the document on Ed's iPad. "Who are you?" JR asked suspiciously, still standing still.

            "Connor. And you're JR. Nice to meet you. Now I already have enough on my plate as it is, so I'd appreciate it if you stay put for a change."

            "Yeah, I'm going to my room." JR the headed upstairs and to his room. Connor merely took another bite of his apple, then headed back to the kitchen where he had a good view of the driveway.

Breakfast at the Cage was just like any other, except for the fact that Melisa had joined them on the table. Elizabeth and her personal guard was missing, as always, and Scars was around there somewhere, just waiting for one of them to trespass again. All of them sat and ate in silence, worrying about JR's whereabouts more than anything else. Dev had taken Melisa back home, and Ian and Ed was sitting in the library and doing nothing but being bored. In truth, Ian was deep in thought about the surveillance feeds that he had found the night. before. He did not know exactly what to make of it, though.

            "Well, I'll be at the pub again." Ed said after a long while and got up. He then pulled out his cellphone and opened the message that had just come his way. "Oh, JR's at home. The text says that he looked like a mess, though, and that there was no sign of a firearm, though Connor hadn't searched him."

            "We'll have to keep an eye on him... I'd also like to go and see how Abigail is doing."

            "Yeah. Though if you don't mind, I'll be on my way now." Ed headed out and waved back at Ian before getting into the car and driving off. Ian was still starring down the driveway, contemplating whether going to the hospital and questioning Abigail was a good idea. After figuring that why the hell not, he turned and got into his own car and drove off.

Ed parked on Connor's parking again as he arrived at the pub, got out and made his way around and into the building where the same girl from before served him his usual whiskey.

            "What's wrong?" she asked as she set the glass down in front of him.

            "Just, stuff. Nothing that important, but also nothing not important." Ed looked down and gave off a single laugh. "I honestly don't know," he then said and looked up at her. "Everything I have ever done have been thrown back into my  face, sometimes feeling like a gun that had backfired. And now, after all of the recent happenings, I feel extremely, complacent. Even with the stakes."

            "Sounds rough," the bartender said before putting down another glass next to Ed. "Looks like you've got company again."

            "Sounds familiar," Elizabeth said as she sat down next to him and downed her first glass, just like Ed had.

            Ed looked down and smiled, then back up at her. "What's your bodyguard going to say if he finds out you're missing, hey Princess?"

            "He's been my bodyguard since I was 17. We share the same goals, especially now."

            "And what is your goal?" Ed asked before downing another glass.

            "That is too personal to discuss."

            Ed bobbed his head in acknowledgement and took a sip of his glass just as the bartender had refilled it. "Ain't it always," he then said and looked back at her, "besides, you know full well why I have to be locked up in that house of yours every day, so it's only fair, I'd say. Besides, so far all you've managed to do is make us feel like you're not true to your word."

            Elizabeth slapped him through the face, which made him simply look down at his glass and let out a single laugh again. "You pack more of a punch than I let on."

            Elizabeth merely looked at him then back at her own glass. "I come from a noble family. Five years ago my father died in a plane accident, and two years after, my mother in the same way. I was convinced that it had been foul play, and it seems that I was right. I got in with the Agency --"

            "--bullshit," Ed interrupted. "The Agency have been decommissioned little more than ten years ago."

            "It doesn't matter. Turns out that I found myself in bigger trouble than I could handle, and now I am here. Playing host in a house to the likes of you."

            "So what do you want me to do?"

            "For now? Nothing," Elizabeth said, sounding disappointed. "But you can drink with me."

            Ed looked at her and thought about it. He then lifted his glass toward her, and she did the same. Their glasses clinked.

That night, Ed was in his room looking at the camera in the corner. He wondered what would happen if he would dislodge it. Would Scars come and drag him down to the dungeon this place was sure to have, or would a SWAT team come bashing on the door? He then thought about how Ian must have already found a way into the feeds and what he had found. Probably nothing, though. He then made his way to bed, thinking about what Elizabeth had said. As if to compliment his thoughts, a knock resounded on his door.

            "Come in," Ed called as he sat up on his bed. Elizabeth entered his room and handed him an envelope. "What's this?" he asked and looked at her.

            "You are to go to the old Benoni mine dumps. The rest of the information is in the envelope. You have a week to complete the assignment."

            "Thanks, I suppose. Ian and Dev know yet?"

            "They will get their envelopes at breakfast."

            Ed put the envelope down on the end table and stood up from the bed, walked around to where Elizabeth stood and watched him. "Listen, about how I treated you," Ed said, but stopped talking as he heard clapping coming form the hallway.

            "Your first assignment!" the man said that entered. He had long black hair with a nicely trimmed goatee that made him look like one of those oldies movies vampires.

            "Hello, brother," Elizabeth said, clearly annoyed. Her brother then walked around toward the camera and turned around with his hands behind his back.

            "Oh how I do love when I have a fan base."

            "What do you want?" Elizabeth asked.

            "Oh nothing! Just went on my little late afternoon stroll when I noticed the door wide open. Thought I'd pop in and see what the kiddies are up to nowadays! Cute, aren't you?"

            Ed merely stood in silence, remembering what Elizabeth had told him whenever they were to converse with her brother.

            "Anyway, I'll be off then! Remember the curfew!" he strolled out the door and down the hallway nonchalantly, smiling creepily as he did so. Elizabeth merely shook her head and pressed her thumb and index finger against her closed eyes.

            "Is he always like that?" Ed asked awkwardly.

            "unfortunately. Time does that to a person... Anyway, I should be off to bed. Have a good night." Elizabeth walked out the door and closed it behind her before Ed could reply. He walked back to the bed and lay back down. He then picked the envelope up from the end table, opened it up and took out the small paper inside.

            He skimmed through the instructions and set it down on the end table and peered inside the envelope. Inside lay a small SD card -- something he guessed shouldn't have been included.

Ed got back up and searched in his backpack for his laptop, something he hardly ever used, turned it on and put the sd card into the memory card reader slot. At first, what he found on it was nothing but gibberish, random files that couldn't be opened due to it being corrupted. After trying to sort it and change a few filenames in order to see if that would do the rick, he found a pattern in the names.

            After finding the pattern, deciphering the rest of the message was fairly easy to do. He found a set of letters that seemed in no way logical, but knew exactly what it said. The person who had taught him that cipher was also the one who had watching out for him and mentoring him during The Fall -- the Red Arrow.

            "Huh," Ed said as all the links to the message fell into place on his screen. To anyone, it would be complete nonsense, but eventually Ed had deciphered it so that he could read.

watch the shadows. siblings are not as they seem. augs are being hunted down. he has returned. meet me at mine dump during assignment. coordinates with liz.